Prior to the American Manufacturing Summit 2019, we spoke with St. Onge to discuss their Lunch & Learn topic, “How Collaboration Yields Superior Facility Design: Optimizing Planning, Procurement and Implementation Management”. In this Q&A, we discuss the greatest challenges with national, domestic and international manufacturing operations, what manufacturers should stop doing to improve their performance plans, and what today’s manufacturing leaders need to think about in order to plan for tomorrow. This is an excerpt from the Q&A Generis did with St. Onge: “Your Lunch & learn topic at the American Manufacturing Summit will focus on how collaboration yields superior facility design, as well as how manufacturers can optimize planning, procurement and implementation management. What is one key takeaway you want to leave attendees with?
Read More →Aerospace & Defense Controlled Conditions Facilities
Q&A with The Austin Company’s Donna Lorenzen, PE Prior to the American Aerospace & Defense Summit 2018, we spoke with Donna Lorenzen, Chief Mechanical Engineer at The Austin Company to discuss controlled conditions facilities and best available technologies in the aerospace & defense industry. Donna’s experience in the design and engineering of facilities for the industry is considerable and current. With over 27 years of professional experience in the design and engineering of mechanical systems for aerospace and defense industry facilities, 24 years have been with The Austin Company. This is an excerpt from the Q&A Generis Group did with Donna Lorenzen.
Read More →Arizona: Aerospace & Defense Industry
Arizona is among the top states in the nation for the aerospace & defense (A&D) industry. Its dry, sunny climate, geographic location, business-friendly and innovative culture, and unwavering commitment to America’s military make it an attractive choice for A&D companies. Factor in affordable wages, the low cost of living, and some of the nations lowest corporate and individual income tax rates, and Arizona is tough to beat. A&D is one of the state’s six key sectors and continues to thrive in Arizona. Arizona has a high concentration of A&D industry leaders; a skilled, talented workforce employed in the industry; numerous military operations; and continual research and development initiatives in the private sector and at the university level. These factors ensure Arizona will remain at the forefront of the A&D industry’s most critical advances.
Read More →Q&A with The Austin Company
The environment facing automotive-related manufacturers is fierce. Changing regulations, competitor landscape, technology and customer preferences, along with a fluid global economy, create challenging conditions for automakers and their suppliers. The Austin Company understands this landscape. This is an excerpt from an interview Generis Group did with Brandon Davis, Vice President of Operations and General Manager at The Austin Company prior to the American Automotive Summit 2018. “How can automotive manufacturing facilities decrease project capital costs through engineering and re-design concepts? There are a few ways to look at reducing costs today, compared to how traditional automotive plants used to be designed and built. Throughout most of my career in the industry, we would build plants with what I would call ‘oversized’ structural steel. By doing this, we built in maximum flexibility for the plant, so equipment could easily move around and the plant could be easily adapted in the future, as much of the production processes were “hung loads” from the structure. As the industry has evolved, equipment has become lighter, many production processes can now be floor-mounted, and – in general – equipment has become more flexible and able to support different product types. In this setting, we are working hard in the production layout efforts to see what really needs to be supported from the structure and to design structures specifically for what is needed. That reduces the cost of the facility construction and saves the use of …
Read More →US Medtech Industry Looking at Ireland as a Resource
While the American medtech industry is thriving, it still must deal with challenges that include higher production costs, finding skilled staff and the ongoing issues innate to a highly regulated sector. Then there are global concerns such as competition, funding and the high cost of research. With Europe and the United States being the key markets, many U.S. medtech firms have located some of their operations in Ireland in order to take advantage of an established, flourishing life sciences sector, strong governmental support and easy access to the lucrative European market. Among the more than 300 companies with Irish facilities are Boston Scientific, Abbott, Vistakon, Medtronic, Teleflex, Stryker, Cook Medical, Zimmer Biomet, DePuy Synthes, Hollister, and BD. The medtech field in Ireland employs more than 32,000 people, which is the highest per capita in Europe. One-quarter of the world’s diabetics — 30 million people — rely on an injectable device manufactured in Ireland, while half of all ventilators used by acute hospitals worldwide are also made there. Meanwhile, three-quarters of global orthopedic knee products were produced in Ireland. There are several important reasons why American medtech companies have been choosing Ireland as their European base of operations, benefiting from Ireland’s manufacturing expertise, R&D facilities, pool of trained workers, data analysis skills, collaboration between companies, financial advantages, and regulatory advantages.
Read More →Precise Engineering, Quality Construction: How World Class Facilities Get Built
The Austin Company has been serving the manufacturing industry for over 140 years. Today, they continue to provide state-of-the-art facility and equipment design and construction solutions for manufacturers of a wide range of products, including aerospace and automotive, chemical processing, food processing, and laboratory facilities. In advance of our American Manufacturing Summit, we interviewed Matt Eddleman, a Senior Vice President at The Austin Company and asked him the following: How have manufacturing facilities evolved in recent years? What are some notable projects you have worked on over the years with The Austin Company? What was a particularly challenging project you worked on and how did The Austin Company overcome the challenges you were presented with? What do you think is unique about the way The Austin Company operates or approaches a project? What are the main goals you seek to achieve when taking on a project? How do you go about doing this? How do you align site selection and design with a client’s strategic goals? What in-house subject matter expertise does The Austin Company have and how does that help create complex facilities unique to specific industries or products? Click through to read the entire interview.
Read More →Top 3 Ways IIoT Enables Business Outcomes in Manufacturing
According to IoT solutions company relayr, the manufacturing industry, as a whole, is the least digitally advanced industry today. It is also the industry with the most to gain from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). With shrinking margins and increasing pressure to deliver better, faster, and cheaper, manufacturers are looking for ways to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and open up new revenue streams, none of which can be accomplished without embracing the IIoT. The key areas in which the IIoT is poised to help manufacturers achieve their target business outcomes are: Asset Services – the continual monitoring and analysis of production line and/or supply chain data points that are most influential to a manufacturing enterprise. This data can be used to trigger automated responses in the machines, alert employees, track production and inventory in real time, and even enable custom product manufacturing Predictive Maintenance – the ability to conduct “just in time” maintenance, drastically reducing costs related to unplanned downtime as well as unnecessary preventative maintenance visits for healthy equipment. Through advanced analytics and anomaly detection, predictive maintenance capabilities only grow smarter over time through AI capabilities, to continually refine and improve manufacturers’ maintenance performance. Device Management – the functionality delivered by the ability to connect, retrieve data, and take action at the device (equipment) level. This interoperability is only achievable through a solid foundation of an IIoT middleware platform, connected hardware, and a solid device management software component. …
Read More →Five Premium Manufacturing Facilities, from Bakery Production to Heavy Industrial Manufacturing
The Austin Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of in-house services, including planning, architectural design, engineering, design-build, construction management, and construction, as well as site location and operations improvement consulting, for commercial and industrial companies throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In advance of the American Manufacturing Summit, we asked them to highlight some of their favorite manufacturing facilities they have worked on across different industries, from bakery production to heavy industrial manufacturing.
Read More →Excellence Across the Board: MPI Fact Sheet & Case Studies
Microboard Processing Inc (MPI) has delivered excellence in circuit card assembly and box build Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) to the Aerospace and Defense industry since 1983. As a woman-owned and AS9100 certified contract manufacturer specializing in RF technology, you can count on MPI to deliver on mission-critical systems. To meet the needs of demanding clients in the aerospace, defense, and healthcare industries MPI offers best-in-class process capabilities and responsiveness along with the ability to manage highly complex, high reliability and strictly regulated requirements on behalf of their customers. Explore case studies and learn more about what MPI can do for you – check out this fact sheet produced by Generis Group!
Read More →How Real-time Dynamic Scheduling Can Change the Game
In most high-mix discrete manufacturing, the concept of plant floor management can be misleading, as schedules cannot be carried out, production analysis is often too late to create impactful changes, and there is no visibility into bottlenecks, WIP or order status. Fortunately, Real-time Dynamic Scheduling is now available and can create improvements in plant floor management by coordinating among four functions: production planning, execution, tracking, and analysis.
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